3/19 ROH in Manhattan: A second report on Eddie Edwards winning the ROH Title, LAX vs. The Kings of Wrestling, Christopher Daniels vs. Davey Richards, Steve Corino vs. Mike "The Prodigy" Bennett

ROH Live Event
Manhattan, N.Y.
Report by Dot Net reader Alejandro Osborne

1. Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly defeated Michael Elgin and Mike Mondo. Good opening match, with a botched ending by Adam Cole, who ends up hitting a German Suplex after a Superkick to cover it for the win. Mike Mondo took the pinfall and was destroyed by Michael Elgin for it afterwards. Lots of Spirit Squad and Dolph Ziggler chants for Mondo. Elgin is a shorter version of Dr. Death Steve Williams, but looks like he might be stronger - very impressive in his first New York outing. 

2. Tomassio Ciampa beat Grizzly Redwood. I understand why this match was here (to showcase the Embassy and their new star) but it was borderline painful to watch. Not good chemistry at all between these two and very clunky at several points. Ciampa wins when he hits a double knee backbreaker out of the powerbomb position - kind of hard to describe, will make sense if you see it. 

3. Mike "The Prodgy" Bennett beat Steve Corino. Okay match for what it was. Corino is doing the remorseful bad guy gimmick after driving Kevin Steen insane for an entire year. Corino entertained and even pulls out the "thumb in a**" technique for NYC. Finish comes after Bennett hits two sit-down rock bottoms for the win. Bennett is not very good. Think he would be perfect on Tough Enough.

4. The All Night Express defeated The Briscoes. Very good tag match that was interesting in that my sister and I were noticing that the Briscoes were playing heels during the match while ANX always had a face in peril.  Turns out we were right because after Rhett Titus rolled up Jay Briscoe for the win, the Briscoes attacked and a huge brawl ensued (double turn!). The Briscoes get the better of the fight, but ANX leave under their own power.

5. El Generico beat T.J. Perkins. Very good albeit yet short match. It was as if they never hit that third gear we all know they both have. Finish came after Generico stops T.J. from diving onto him outside and hits a Brainbuster on the apron, and covers him for the pin. Please comeback chants for TJ after the match. 

6. The Kings of Wrestling beat LAX (Homicide and Hernandez) in a non-title match. Typical Kings of Wrestling tag match, which means it was very good. If it were against the LAX that started their run in TNA as a hungry Homicide and a fresh Hernandez, this match would've been great. As it were however, the match played off of the name value of the people involved, not their current incarnations. Impressive spot of the night goes to Claudio for his no-hands-torture rack-airplane spin on Hernandez. Claudio wins with running European uppercut on Homicide.
 
7. Davey Richards defeated Christopher Daniels. As you would expect, this match would've been awesome given the two people involved, except Davey almost killed himself doing a shooting star press that looked like it was supposed to end the match - scary yet comical almost - he jumped really high but ended up moving sideways with his rotation instead of forwards and landed midsection first on the top rope. If he only moved backwards and missed the rope, the event would've taken a different tone. Richards ended up pinning Daniels with a Jackknife roll-up and was visibly pissed at himself afterwards.   

8. Eddie Edwards beat Roderick Strong to win the ROH Title. Edwards and Roderick wrestled a flawless match, and an awesome way to end the show. After a series of technical reversals Edwards sat down on Strong's roll up attempt for the pinfall. This was one the most shocking - pleasantly shocking - title changes I have ever seen. I haven't been this genuinely happy for a guy winning a title since Chris Jericho beat the Rock for the WCW title ten years ago.

After watching Edwards be nothing more than a jobber 3 or 4 years ago to people who no longer  even wrestle, to fighting through a broken elbow in a Ladder War, to watching him do this really shows his work ethic. Some people, a friend of mine included, left early to go get their seats for the WWE show at MSG, because they assumed there would be no switch - there were no indications one was about to happen. Davey came out as if to confront his partner, only to congratulate him. Congratulations to Eddie Edwards. 

Notes: I walked down the block to MSG for the WWE show that was in progress and was very disinterested throughout the night at the product. It was a big let down from the emotional high that the ROH show gave us. The highlight of the show was the dance off (yeah...) and the fact that walking down 34th street afterwards we saw Ted DiBiasie and Sheamus being mobbed by fans while they were trying to hail a cab. 

WWE returns to MSG for the Survivor Series.

ROH returns to the  Hammerstein ballroom on Sunday June 26.